Gigabyte is also participating in AMD's 50th-anniversary festivities with its X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 motherboard that joins the ranks of AMD's 50th Anniversary Ryzen 7 2700X processor and Sapphire's Radeon RX 590 graphics card.
The Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 is an ATX motherboard based on AMD's high-end X470 chipset. The typical black PCB is complemented by orange and silver accents and Gigabyte's usual RGB Fusion 2.0 multi-zone lighting. One of the neater aspects is the addition of a swappable overlay that rests beside the 24-pin power connector. Gigabyte provides the necessary files so you can design and 3D print your own Accent LED overlay to show off your individuality.
The Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 draws power from the 8-pin EPS power connector and an optional 4-pin power connector. The motherboard has a 10+2-phase power delivery subsystem with 10 power phases that feed up to 40A to the CPU, while the SoC (system-on-chip) or memory controller gets two power phases rated for 50A.
The motherboard has four DDR4 memory slots that can house dual-channel DDR4 memory kits up to 64GB and 3,600MHz data transfer rates. AMD Ryzen and Athlon Pro-series processor owners will be happy to know that the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 supports ECC (error-correcting code) memory.
There are several storage options on the motherboard as well. For starters, you get six SATA III ports that are directly connected to the X470 chipset and support RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays. For high-speed storage, the motherboard provides two M.2 ports, which are cooled by passive heatsinks. The M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 port can accommodate PCIe and SATA M.2 SSDs up to 110mm while the other M.2 PCIe 2.0 x4 port is limited to PCIe SSDs up to 80mm.
The board has three PCIe 3.0 x16 slots in total. However, only the first slot runs at x16 while the remaining two operate at x8 and x4, respectively. As a result, the motherboard supports two-way Nvidia SLI or AMD CrossFire configurations. For good measure, Gigabyte added two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots to the motherboard so you can add other PCIe devices that don't necessarily require a x16 connection.
As its name implies, the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 comes with dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 5 connectivity. There is support for the 11ac 160MHz wireless standard and throughput of 1.73 Gbps. If you prefer an old-school wired connection, the motherboard has a conventional Gigabit Ethernet port as well.
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The motherboard employs the Realtek ALC1220-VB codec, which is accompanied by an ES9118 SABRE HiFi SoC, TXC Oscillator, and audiophile-grade WIMA and Nichicon Fine Gold capacitors. The motherboard supports 7.1-channel audio and has five gold-plated analog audio jacks and an optical S/PDIF out connector.
USB connectivity on the Gigabyte X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 includes six USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A port, and two USB 2.0 ports. Two of the USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, which are colored in yellow, feature USB DAC-UP 2 technology, which compensates for voltage drops. These ports are perfect for connecting VR headsets, high-end earphones, gaming peripherals, and external hard drives or SSDs.
Gigabyte hasn't listed the availability or pricing for the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50. Since AMD's 50th anniversary is approaching on May 1, we expect the motherboard to arrive on shelves very soon.
Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.